Patent Win

Embargoed Release: GMT 07:00hrs 25th February 2004

                                  Sopheon Plc                                  

                                  (`Sopheon')                                  

          Sopheon Granted New Patent on Technology Architecture that           

     Enhances Innovation and Content Reuse in Critical Business Processes      

Company's Core Intellectual Property Now Protected Both in U.S. and Europe

MINNEAPOLIS and LONDON-Feb. 25, 2004-Sopheon, the international software and
services company, announced today that the United States Patent Office has
granted a patent covering the architecture and methodology at the center of
principal software applications offered by the company.

The new patent (number US, 6,632,251 B1) protects Sopheon software architecture
that is based on the disciplines of organizational science, language technology
and data analysis. The technology is designed to strengthen critical knowledge-
and language-intensive business processes by triggering innovation and
effecting automatic reuse of information. The key to its value is the
technology's capacity for creative content mining. When deployed in support of
product development, for instance, it responds to a user's subject interest by
proactively mining the organization's knowledgebases around the globe, alerting
the user to related product development projects in progress or from the past
and retrieving relevant information. The technology not only informs the user
of potentially instructive or redundant project activity, it can spot and
present previously unconsidered knowledge that has the potential to stimulate
valuable new ideas, insight and innovation. The technology also incorporates
terminology management features that ensure users create and publish content in
a controlled and standardized way, thereby improving communication within and
among cross-functional teams even across long intervals of time.

'This latest grant means that core Sopheon patents have now been approved both
in the U.S. and Europe,' said Andy Michuda, chief executive officer of Sopheon.
'The resulting international protection covers intellectual property that is at
the heart of Sopheon's differentiation and central to the value proposition of
our current offerings and to our roadmap for expanding the capabilities of our
products. It is an independent validation of the importance and uniqueness of
the technology we've created.'

The newly patented architecture is already in use. It has been implemented, for
example, by teaching hospitals in the Netherlands to improve communication and
collaboration among doctors, nurses and other health care professionals in
applying the latest evidence and best practices to the provision of patient
care. In another illustration of the technology's utility, a chemicals
manufacturer is using it as an integral part of plant and product management
processes to improve compliance with regulatory requirements.

Planning is underway for integration of the patented capabilities into
Sopheon's Accolade system where it will enhance cross-functional product
development. The technology will help teams operating in global companies
create, publish and reuse deliverables and content from the time a product is
conceived as an idea, throughout its development and launch, and until it is
commercially retired.

Work on the software architecture represented by the new patent began in 1993.
Early development was supported by grants from Europe's Eureka initiative under
the BTIP international technology program. A patent was issued in Europe in
2001 that protects this same intellectual property. Since 2000, Sopheon has
also been awarded U.S. and European patents on the advanced software
architecture that underpins expert-location and other major components of
collaboration and knowledge-sharing technology within its solutions.

About Sopheon

Sopheon (LSE: SPE) is an international provider of software and services.
Sopheon's Accolade® product development system automates gate- or phase-based
product development processes and provides strategic decision support that
allows companies to improve innovation, cut product development spending waste
and shorten time-to-market. Sopheon's Monitor software operates as a 'reading
robot' that monitors, filters, analyzes and pushes relevant content to
healthcare and engineering professionals to enable effective compliance with
protocols, standards and regulations. Sopheon is listed on the AIM Market of
the London Stock Exchange and on the Euronext in the Netherlands. For more
information, please visit www.sopheon.com.

For further information contact:

Barry Mence, Chairman   Sopheon plc                  Tel : + 44 (0) 1483 685   
                                                     735                       
Arif Karimjee, CFO                                                             
                                                                               
Andrew Tan              Hansard Communications       Tel : + 44 (0) 207 245    
                                                     1100                      
                                                                               
Barbara Jansen          Citigate First Financial     Tel : + 31 (0) 205 754 010